Maus AND HERE MY TROUBLES BEGAN By: aRT SPIEGELMAN Josh Bender CHARACTER LIST CATS = NAZIS FROGS = FRENCH Mice = JEWS
PIGS = POLISH DOGS = AMERICANS BLACK DOGS = AFRICAN AMERICAN
WHY I CHOSE THIS BOOK:
PREVIOUSLY IN THE 8TH GRADE I READ MAUS I. THIS BOOK LED ME TO ACTUALLY ENJOY READING. ONCE I STARTED MAUS I I COULDN’T PUT IT DOWN. I AM JEWISH MYSELF AND HAVE NEVER WANTED TO READ A HOLOCAUST BOOK. HOWEVER, THIS WAS A LIFE CHANGER. I NOW ENJOY LEARNING ABOUT MY ANCESTORS PAST. MAUS I LED ME TO READ MAUS II AND I ENJOY IT A LOT.
Genre of the book
This book fits the genre of historical fiction perfectly because it includes events that have and could have happened in real life. Obviously, people —no matter which way you put it—will never be dogs, cats, mice, frogs, or any animal as a matter of fact. Historical fiction is very interesting to read. It takes something boring and not fun and turns it into something thrilling to read. Many of the historical nonfiction events happen in real life. One reason I d
on’t like historical non-fiction is because most of the events are predictable based on prior knowledge. Historical fiction is more preferable to me because it shows the facts in creative ways. With historical fiction For example, when the author talks about Auschwitz and how it was the deadliest concentration camp was a real event. However, when the author mentions people like mala leaving Vladek which was not a real event. Normally when reading a book about the holocaust, I end up putting it down because I get melancholy. However, with this book I just can’t put it down. In the book there was one part about a polish man helping out Vladek (Art’s Father.) the polish man lays down a feast for Vladek. This is one of the events that could not have been true, but the make the story more interesting. Maus ii ended up being my favorite book of all time. I loved every aspect of it. In my opinion I think historical fiction fits this book perfectly.
CHARACTER ANALYSIS Art (Or Artie) Spiegelman is the author of the Maus Books. Art did not live through the Holocaust, for he was born after. Art starts writing a novel and he has to ask and ask and ask his father for some information. Artie’s father is Vladek Spiegelman. As he is writing the book he comes to visit his father way more. Vladek lived through the Holocaust. In 1937 Vladek marries Anja. Anja, sadly, committed suicide, so there is not much about her. During the war Vladek was a shrewd business man. He tried his best to provide food, water, and shelter for him and his family. Artie has had to live with his father ever since Mala (His second wife) left him. Art is a very lenient person; however he can’t tolerate his father sometimes. Vladek is a perfec
tionist. For example, When Artie and his wife were helping Vladek with his payments, Vladek said, “Aach Artie why must you be so lazy”. Another instance was when Vladek and Mala were together, he was still stingy. Artie gets very annoyed by this. Artie cannot stand living under his father’s roof. Artie gets very aggravated with Vladek and his “perfect” lifestyle. Before Mala left Vladek, she left a note that said, “Don’t be so stingy.” Vladek, of course, says, “Why would she leave such a sick man like me?” Mala wasn’t around to hear that. I’m sure if she was that would cause her to leave in a heartbeat. Vladek knows that he has been harsh on her, but it’s only because he misses Anja. He also misses Richieu, his baby. Richieu was supposed to go to the gas chambers, but his caretaker didn’t want him to die that way. Instead, she poisoned herself and him. Vladek keeps a picture of Richieu right above his bed. Vladek says, “This is because I want him to live throughout our hearts.” On the outside vladek appears sting and cheap, but on the inside Vladek just misses his true family: Anja and Richieu. He loves Artie just as much, but he can’t figure out how to show it. All he wants to do is show Artie and Mala, that he really loves them, and his hard times still haunt him. Artie hasn’t yet seen that, and neither has Mala. Vladek has been treating Mala very poor, and he doesn’t want that anymore. Artie just wants to know why his father is like that, so he’s trying to get to know his father’s past. Mala will eventually see that, too, but it will just take some more time. Mala also doesn’t realize the pain he went through when Anja committed suicide. Artie is also haun
ted by his words. When his mother (Anja) Came into his room she askd, “Artie, Do you love me?” Artie then replied “Sure”. That night haunted Artie ever since he said those words, because that night, she committed suicide. This tore arties heart apart, and he will never let it go. Neither, will Vladek. THEMES/CONFLICTS One of my favorite themes in Maus II, is race and class. Since the author is dealing with the Holocaust, race and class are big conflicts to the novel. During the Holocaust, the Nazis would try to harm anyone who was Jewish, African American, Homosexual, Gypsies, and Political Haters. These people were identified by a simple shape and maybe a couple letters. How can anyone judge someone by a shape? That’s the question any of the survivors had after the Holocaust. In the book, the different races and classes were identified by which animal they were. The Nazis in the book, would go around, take a small child who was Jewish, African American, or a Gypsy, and smash their heads against a brick wall. This is the very sad truth. It’s almost impossible to believe that us humans could do this. This War caused the whole world to go mad. At the end of the novel it states that, 6 million Jews were murdered in this war. From research, five million of the other innocent civilians were murdered. Race and class was the biggest conflict in the book. The worst thing stated in the book was that, in the gas chambers, people believed that they were going to take a shower, but they weren’t. People also believed that the chimney with the horrid smelling smoke was just there bread being burnt. In the begging of the book people believed that everything was normal, it would just be another war, but it wasn’t. In this book and in reality it was more than just a war. The majority of the conflicts in the book, focused around people hating each other, families turning against each other, and worst of all, people killing each other.
SYMBOLIC ART DESCRIPTION For my symbolic picture I created a heart with the Hebrew word Chai inside of it. Chai is translated to the symbolic number in Judaism eighteen. Chai also is considered the Hebrew word for life. I chose this picture for readers to imagine a scenario that this could be for in the book. I imagined it meaning that even though lives were lost, new life has been made. Through the generations life will be passed on and stories will remain. The lives of the people who passed away will forever be remembered as a part of our religion. By this I mean, we will keep the lives of the people who have passed away alive through our stories.
5 WORDS Pogrom Us Jews lived through pogroms. A pogrom is a very big riot, usually against an ethnic religion.
Raus Juden Raus! Raus is a German word for the command “Out!”
Barracks We were enclosed in barracks, sitting on straw, waiting only to die. Barracks are places to sleep, usually in some sort of camp.
Shvartzer Oy! A hitch-hiker, and he’s a shvartrzer. The German word for African American people.
Typhus From the lice was typhus. Typhus is an infectious disease that can be contagious.
Themes Among the many themes in Maus is guilt. Guilt is something no one person can forget about. In the book Maus II the Survivors of the Holocaust will always have that feeling that it’s their fault that their families got killed. Everyone in the world has has a guilty feeling inside them, but this is worse. Even the people whose parents or grandparents feel that guilt of not telling the stories of the Holocaust. This doesn’t happen to everyone of that era though. For example, Artie is retelling the stories by writing a novel. He wants his father’s memories and experiences to be long lived, so the future generations won’t make the same mistakes. Vladek has an even worse feeling than most survivors. He feels that it was his fault that Richieu got killed. He also believes that Anja committed suicide because of him. There is no psychologist in the world that can help this guilty feeling go away. Vladek will never forget the people he’s encountered. However, he will always feel good about the things he did to protect them, and keep their spirits alive. During the Holocaust people had to let their children, parents, grandparents, and friends, to be left to die. There was no way to prevent that. Every man was for themselves. It wasn’t easy to get food or even clean water. This is where the guilt comes into play for the survivors. They look back and feel that it was their fault that they let their friends and family be murdered. The real fact is that it’s not. There was nothing that Vladek, Mala, and Anja could do to realize that. SUMMARY Maus is a book written and illustrated about the holocaust. The book was written and illustrated by Art Spiegelman. The story starts off very slowly in present day time. The characters are represented by animals. When Artie gets a call from his father Vladek, saying that something was wrong over at his house. Artie rushes over just to find out what was wrong. It turned out that Vladek’s wife Mala had left him. After a while, Artie asks him about his stories of the Holocaust. Artie needs these notes, to write his novel. Vladek starts talking about his trouble during the Holocaust. Spiegelman uses these details to write and illustrate very descriptively. By the end of the book, Vladek is finished telling his descriptive and factual Holocaust stories. EXISTING ART DISCUSSION The movie “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a great movie about the Holocaust. It expresses the theme I would imagine to be friendship. The movie starts off with a normal boy playing ball. A little bit later in the movie his ball goes over a fence and down the hill. He goes to get it, when he sees a fence, with people inside it. Near the end the two boys become friends. The boy, Schmul, who lives inside the fence can’t find his father> So Schmul, goes to find prisoners clothes, to give to the little boy. The little boy then digs a hole under the fence, crawls under, and him and Schmul go searching. When they start walking, Nazi guards gather everyone up, and they send them, in a line, to a chamber. Everyone thinks that they are going to take a nice shower. They soon come to find that they’re not. The two boys, crying in fear, get hauled into the chambers and gas starts filling up. They couldn’t even breathe. When the little boy’s father comes to clear out the chamber, he notices his son. The little boy and Schmul are lying dead next to each other. The father realizes what a horrible thing that he has done to these people. He now feels the guilt, about all the things he’s done. The terrible crime he committed will forever haunt him. Knowing that he killed his own son, he will never get that guilty feeling out of him.
AND HERE MY TROUBLES BEGAN
By: aRT SPIEGELMAN
Josh Bender
CHARACTER LIST
CATS = NAZIS
FROGS = FRENCH
Mice = JEWS
PIGS = POLISH
DOGS = AMERICANS
BLACK DOGS = AFRICAN AMERICAN
WHY I CHOSE THIS BOOK:
PREVIOUSLY IN THE 8TH GRADE I READ MAUS I. THIS BOOK LED ME TO ACTUALLY ENJOY READING. ONCE I STARTED MAUS I I COULDN’T PUT IT DOWN. I AM JEWISH MYSELF AND HAVE NEVER WANTED TO READ A HOLOCAUST BOOK. HOWEVER, THIS WAS A LIFE CHANGER. I NOW ENJOY LEARNING ABOUT MY ANCESTORS PAST. MAUS I LED ME TO READ MAUS II AND I ENJOY IT A LOT.
Genre of the book
This book fits the genre of historical fiction perfectly because it includes events that have and could have happened in real life. Obviously, people —no matter which way you put it—will never be dogs, cats, mice, frogs, or any animal as a matter of fact. Historical fiction is very interesting to read. It takes something boring and not fun and turns it into something thrilling to read. Many of the historical nonfiction events happen in real life. One reason I d
on’t like historical non-fiction is because most of the events are predictable based on prior knowledge. Historical fiction is more preferable to me because it shows the facts in creative ways. With historical fiction For example, when the author talks about Auschwitz and how it was the deadliest concentration camp was a real event. However, when the author mentions people like mala leaving Vladek which was not a real event. Normally when reading a book about the holocaust, I end up putting it down because I get melancholy. However, with this book I just can’t put it down. In the book there was one part about a polish man helping out Vladek (Art’s Father.) the polish man lays down a feast for Vladek. This is one of the events that could not have been true, but the make the story more interesting. Maus ii ended up being my favorite book of all time. I loved every aspect of it. In my opinion I think historical fiction fits this book perfectly.
CHARACTER ANALYSIS
Art (Or Artie) Spiegelman is the author of the Maus Books. Art did not live through the Holocaust, for he was born after. Art starts writing a novel and he has to ask and ask and ask his father for some information. Artie’s father is Vladek Spiegelman. As he is writing the book he comes to visit his father way more. Vladek lived through the Holocaust. In 1937 Vladek marries Anja. Anja, sadly, committed suicide, so there is not much about her. During the war Vladek was a shrewd business man. He tried his best to provide food, water, and shelter for him and his family. Artie has had to live with his father ever since Mala (His second wife) left him. Art is a very lenient person; however he can’t tolerate his father sometimes. Vladek is a perfec
tionist. For example, When Artie and his wife were helping Vladek with his payments, Vladek said, “Aach Artie why must you be so lazy”. Another instance was when Vladek and Mala were together, he was still stingy. Artie gets very annoyed by this. Artie cannot stand living under his father’s roof. Artie gets very aggravated with Vladek and his “perfect” lifestyle. Before Mala left Vladek, she left a note that said, “Don’t be so stingy.” Vladek, of course, says, “Why would she leave such a sick man like me?” Mala wasn’t around to hear that. I’m sure if she was that would cause her to leave in a heartbeat. Vladek knows that he has been harsh on her, but it’s only because he misses Anja. He also misses Richieu, his baby. Richieu was supposed to go to the gas chambers, but his caretaker didn’t want him to die that way. Instead, she poisoned herself and him. Vladek keeps a picture of Richieu right above his bed. Vladek says, “This is because I want him to live throughout our hearts.” On the outside vladek appears sting and cheap, but on the inside Vladek just misses his true family: Anja and Richieu. He loves Artie just as much, but he can’t figure out how to show it. All he wants to do is show Artie and Mala, that he really loves them, and his hard times still haunt him. Artie hasn’t yet seen that, and neither has Mala. Vladek has been treating Mala very poor, and he doesn’t want that anymore. Artie just wants to know why his father is like that, so he’s trying to get to know his father’s past. Mala will eventually see that, too, but it will just take some more time. Mala also doesn’t realize the pain he went through when Anja committed suicide. Artie is also haun
ted by his words. When his mother (Anja) Came into his room she askd, “Artie, Do you love me?” Artie then replied “Sure”. That night haunted Artie ever since he said those words, because that night, she committed suicide. This tore arties heart apart, and he will never let it go. Neither, will Vladek.
THEMES/CONFLICTS
One of my favorite themes in Maus II, is race and class. Since the author is dealing with the Holocaust, race and class are big conflicts to the novel. During the Holocaust, the Nazis would try to harm anyone who was Jewish, African American, Homosexual, Gypsies, and Political Haters. These people were identified by a simple shape and maybe a couple letters. How can anyone judge someone by a shape? That’s the question any of the survivors had after the Holocaust. In the book, the different races and classes were identified by which animal they were. The Nazis in the book, would go around, take a small child who was Jewish, African American, or a Gypsy, and smash their heads against a brick wall. This is the very sad truth. It’s almost impossible to believe that us humans could do this. This War caused the whole world to go mad. At the end of the novel it states that, 6 million Jews were murdered in this war. From research, five million of the other innocent civilians were murdered. Race and class was the biggest conflict in the book. The worst thing stated in the book was that, in the gas chambers, people believed that they were going to take a shower, but they weren’t. People also believed that the chimney with the horrid smelling smoke was just there bread being burnt. In the begging of the book people believed that everything was normal, it would just be another war, but it wasn’t. In this book and in reality it was more than just a war. The majority of the conflicts in the book, focused around people hating each other, families turning against each other, and worst of all, people killing each other.
SYMBOLIC ART DESCRIPTION
For my symbolic picture I created a heart with the Hebrew word Chai inside of it. Chai is translated to the symbolic number in Judaism eighteen. Chai also is considered the Hebrew word for life. I chose this picture for readers to imagine a scenario that this could be for in the book. I imagined it meaning that even though lives were lost, new life has been made. Through the generations life will be passed on and stories will remain. The lives of the people who passed away will forever be remembered as a part of our religion. By this I mean, we will keep the lives of the people who have passed away alive through our stories.
5 WORDS
Pogrom
Us Jews lived through pogroms.
A pogrom is a very big riot, usually against an ethnic religion.
Raus
Juden Raus!
Raus is a German word for the command “Out!”
Barracks
We were enclosed in barracks, sitting on straw, waiting only to die.
Barracks are places to sleep, usually in some sort of camp.
Shvartzer
Oy! A hitch-hiker, and he’s a shvartrzer.
The German word for African American people.
Typhus
From the lice was typhus.
Typhus is an infectious disease that can be contagious.
Themes
Among the many themes in Maus is guilt. Guilt is something no one person can forget about. In the book Maus II the Survivors of the Holocaust will always have that feeling that it’s their fault that their families got killed. Everyone in the world has has a guilty feeling inside them, but this is worse. Even the people whose parents or grandparents feel that guilt of not telling the stories of the Holocaust. This doesn’t happen to everyone of that era though. For example, Artie is retelling the stories by writing a novel. He wants his father’s memories and experiences to be long lived, so the future generations won’t make the same mistakes. Vladek has an even worse feeling than most survivors. He feels that it was his fault that Richieu got killed. He also believes that Anja committed suicide because of him. There is no psychologist in the world that can help this guilty feeling go away. Vladek will never forget the people he’s encountered. However, he will always feel good about the things he did to protect them, and keep their spirits alive. During the Holocaust people had to let their children, parents, grandparents, and friends, to be left to die. There was no way to prevent that. Every man was for themselves. It wasn’t easy to get food or even clean water. This is where the guilt comes into play for the survivors. They look back and feel that it was their fault that they let their friends and family be murdered. The real fact is that it’s not. There was nothing that Vladek, Mala, and Anja could do to realize that.
SUMMARY
Maus is a book written and illustrated about the holocaust. The book was written and illustrated by Art Spiegelman. The story starts off very slowly in present day time. The characters are represented by animals. When Artie gets a call from his father Vladek, saying that something was wrong over at his house. Artie rushes over just to find out what was wrong. It turned out that Vladek’s wife Mala had left him. After a while, Artie asks him about his stories of the Holocaust. Artie needs these notes, to write his novel. Vladek starts talking about his trouble during the Holocaust. Spiegelman uses these details to write and illustrate very descriptively. By the end of the book, Vladek is finished telling his descriptive and factual Holocaust stories.
EXISTING ART DISCUSSION
The movie “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a great movie about the Holocaust. It expresses the theme I would imagine to be friendship. The movie starts off with a normal boy playing ball. A little bit later in the movie his ball goes over a fence and down the hill. He goes to get it, when he sees a fence, with people inside it. Near the end the two boys become friends. The boy, Schmul, who lives inside the fence can’t find his father> So Schmul, goes to find prisoners clothes, to give to the little boy. The little boy then digs a hole under the fence, crawls under, and him and Schmul go searching. When they start walking, Nazi guards gather everyone up, and they send them, in a line, to a chamber. Everyone thinks that they are going to take a nice shower. They soon come to find that they’re not. The two boys, crying in fear, get hauled into the chambers and gas starts filling up. They couldn’t even breathe. When the little boy’s father comes to clear out the chamber, he notices his son. The little boy and Schmul are lying dead next to each other. The father realizes what a horrible thing that he has done to these people. He now feels the guilt, about all the things he’s done. The terrible crime he committed will forever haunt him. Knowing that he killed his own son, he will never get that guilty feeling out of him.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15197.Maus_Vol_2